Step into one of London’s most extraordinary green corridors – a living thread of history, biodiversity and community resilience that winds its way through marshes, meadows, mosaics and memory.

The We The Lea Walk invites you on a rich journey along the River Lea, tracing the untold stories of restoration, resistance and rewilding. This full-day linear walk links key sites of ecological importance and community action — from the rare grazing marshes of Walthamstow and Hackney’s buzzing pollinator trails, to the Olympic Park’s reimagined landscapes and the thriving volunteer-led oasis at Cody Dock.

As you walk, you’ll encounter wild cattle, endangered eels, bees, mosaics, wildflower meadows, allotments, and people-powered projects making space for nature in the heart of the city. You’ll cross boroughs and bridges, navigate hidden footpaths, and uncover how this patchwork of habitats — from marsh to mosaic, filter bed to footbridge — supports a wilder, more connected London.

This is not just a walk; it’s a celebration of what’s possible when communities come together to reimagine urban nature.
Bring comfortable shoes, curiosity, and your walking companions — and prepare to see London from the ground up.

Let’s walk the Lea. Let’s walk London.

31st MAY BOOK NOW

We The Lea Walk – Event Summary

Duration: Approx. 3.5 hours (Event lasts 6.5 hours)
Distance: ~6.5 miles / 10.5 km
Start: Horse Shoe Bridge, Walthamstow Marshes
End: Cody Dock, near Star Lane
Accessibility: Mixed terrain; some steps, inclines, and road crossings. Step-free alternatives available at key points.

🥾 Walk Overview

Discover the wild and wonderful River Lea on this guided walk through one of London’s most vibrant ecological corridors. From ancient marshlands to Olympic legacy parks, community gardens to pollinator trails, the We The Lea Walk connects habitats, histories and grassroots environmental action across East London.

You’ll pass rare-breed grazing cattle, explore Sites of Special Scientific Interest, encounter mosaics celebrating urban nature, and learn how local volunteers are restoring wildlife habitats all along the way.

The walk includes stops at:

Walthamstow and Hackney Marshes – wetland wildlife and rewilding projects
Middlesex Filter Beds – a historic industrial site turned nature reserve
Pollinator gardens and mosaics – part of the Hackney Buzzline
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park – transformed for biodiversity and community use
Three Mills Island and Cody Dock – hubs for urban ecology and citizen-led restoration

Expect stories of resilience, creativity, and collaboration — and come away inspired to see your city differently.

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Stage 1: Horse Shoe Bridge to Lee Valley Ice Centre (20 mins)

Walk along the gravel path beside the river. To your left you will see rare breeds of cattle which naturally restore the ecological balance of Walthamstow Marshes.

This is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a rare example of semi-natural wetland in London with international importance for waterbirds. It provides refuge for water voles, whose population has crashed by over 95%. Critically endangered eels swim in the river and otters are spotted occasionally.

Walthamstow Marshes hosts a diverse community of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians. Over 400 plant species grow here, some typical of ancient grassland like Adder’s Tongue Fern and the rare Creeping Marshwort. The vegetation supports over 500 insect species, including priority conservation species such as the Brown hairstreak butterfly and Brown-banded carder bee. For years the site was assessed as being in unfavourable and declining condition.

A ranger now works with conservation volunteers to transform the marshes into a high-value resource of fauna and flora which benefit ecosystems beyond the park. It forms a vital link in a chain of ecological connectivity along the Lee Valley.

Gather by the main pond outside the Lee Valley Ice Centre. Toilet facilities inside the centre.

**Lee Valley Ice Centre**

In 2023, the Lee Vally Regional Park Authority redesigned the landscape around the Ice Centre with improved biodiversity features to allow for recolonisation of marshland species. Biodiversity features include wildflower meadows, biodiverse ponds, bioswales for sustainable drainage, endangered Black Poplars and other native trees. Bird boxes, bat boxes, bee hotels, hedgehog shelters and green roof bicycle shelters were also installed.
The authority has recently created a nature trail through the small woodland of Oxbow Island next to the pond. Recent work has included stabilising the bank with coir rolls and tackling invasive non-native species like Floating Pennywort.

Stage 2: Lee Valley Ice Centre to Hackney Marshes (15 mins)

Follow the path around the back of the ice centre along the edge of Leyton Marshes. Turn right at the top and follow the path down to go under the Lea Bridge Road tunnel and past the Collaborative Herbarium Project.

Proceed to Hackney Marshes with the Waterworks Nature Reserve to your left and the government-threatened site of the East London Waterworks Park to your right. Cross the old River Lea at the red bridge and enter onto Hackney Marshes.

Ecologists from the Renature London voluntary group are working with Hackney Council to create new wildlife habitats on the north side of Hackney Marshes. Ecological improvements include loggeries, bee hotels, biodiverse ponds and grass meadow area.

Gather in the newly created wildlife habitats area on North Marsh.

**Hackney Marshes**

Hackney Marshes is a Metropolitan Site of Importance for Nature Conservation, home to Kingfishers, Little Owls, Sparrowhawks and nine bat species. Originally an area of marshland and watermills, the area was filled with bomb rubble after World War 2. For decades Hackney Marshes was a featureless expanse of grass and football pitches. In the 1990s, volunteers from the Hackney Marshes User Group and Tree Musketeers began planting trees on the Marshes and worked with Hackney Council to create a new woodland - Wick Woodland.
During Covid, river bathing, parties, habitat erosion, dog pack walking, and removing wood for burning devasted the area’s wildlife. Two years ago, local groups - Renature London, Wildlife Gardeners of Haggerston, and Save Lea Marshes - began working with Hackney Council to rebuild ecosystems on the north marsh and along the old river Lea. Hundreds of volunteers have helped to make hedgehog homes, loggeries, bee hotels, biodiverse ponds, and new grass meadow areas. The log piles act as refugia where small mammals, reptiles and amphibians can hibernate or hide. The numbers of kestrels, weasels, shrews, wood mice on Hackney Marshes have rebounded dramatically.

Stage 3: Hackney Marshes to Middlesex Filter Beds (10 mins)

Proceed along the path and veer right where it forks at a grass triangle to enter the Middlesex Filter Beds nature reserve. Continue into the reserve and turn left to walk through the middle of the reserve between the beds.

Gather at the Nature’s Throne sculpture at the other end of the site.

Wildflower meadow created by volunteers.jpg

**Middlesex Filter Beds**

The Middlesex Filter Beds shows how industrial areas can be turned into valuable wildlife habitats. The site, which originally provided East London’s drinking water, is now a nature reserve. The Lee Valley Regional Park Authority maintains the site in different stages of ecological succession. A warden works with conservation volunteers to maintain the habitat mosaic - clearing scrub, thinning trees, creating meadows, and removing excess reeds from ponds. Water was resupplied to two beds in 2025.
The filter beds support more than 200 varieties of plants and over 60 bird species. They also provide refuge for grass snakes, frogs, toads, newts and grass snakes as well as dragonflies and butterflies.
‘Nature’s Throne’ - a ring of sculptured granite blocks by artist Paula Haughney sits at the back of the reserve. Behind the sculpture in the far corner an eel pass has been installed beside a weir to help eels travel upstream to their spawning grounds. It is one of two passes in the Lower Lea which enable eels to navigate the river’s many man-made barriers.

Stage 4: Middlesex Filter Beds to Pavilion Pollinator Gardens (20 mins)

Turn back along the right branch of the path and then take a right to exit the nature reserve onto the tow path. Turn right and proceed along the towpath. Cross a concrete footbridge and follow the path down to the entrance to Millfields park. An old iron post there marks the boundary of Victorian London. To your right, the Hackney Council parks team keeps a large expanse of grass uncut for pollinators and other wildlife.

Turn left and follow a yellow hoggin path, past a community orchard and rewilded area on your right, until you leave the park. Follow the path beside the navigation cut until you reach a green metal bridge leading to the Clapton Park Estate. At the left of the bridge entrance, residents and the Waste Depot’s ‘Happy Rubbish Team’ planted the ‘Costa del Clapton’ pollinator flower bed. On the Hackney School of Food garden wall opposite, are two pollinator mosaics made by the Hackney Mosaic Project for the Hackney Buzzline.

Cross the bridge using the pedestrian passage and follow a yellow hoggin path leading to the cricket nets behind a pavilion. Gather by the Pavilion Pollinator Gardens.

**Pavilion Pollinator Gardens**

A habitats restoration project around the Hackney Marshes Pavilion was conceived by a local ecologist.
Two low-nutrient substrate gardens were designed by renowned wildlife gardener John Little, who worked for almost 20 years on the nearby Clapton Park Estate. John Little is a pioneer in the use of recycled aggregates and sand as growing and nesting media for plants and pollinators.
One garden next to the Pavilion’s south wall includes sculptural standing wood, stone-filled gabion cage walls, a sandy bee bank, and a bee hotel for solitary bees filled with different nesting materials.
The parking bay pollinator garden includes several valuable wildlife features: colourful metal planters, pattern-drilled with holes to allow bees to burrow into the sand; pollen and nectar rich wildflower beds which provide forage for pollinating insects; and tall posts drilled with different sized holes for cavity-nesting bees.
A hoggin bee path was added next to the nearby cricket nets as another nesting substrate for ground nesting bees. To the east of the pavilion a wet scrape was created to provide wet decaying logs for other invertebrates, including several rare flies found on the marshes. Whitethroats have started feeding here, utilising nearby scrub.

Stage 5: Pavilion Pollinator Gardens to Here East (30 mins)

Take the track leading from the Parking Bay Pollinator Garden back to the towpath. Turn left and continue (avoiding the cycle path) until you reach a concrete footbridge. Cross the bridge and turn left through a small car park onto Daubeney Fields. Follow the path through the park, passing a butterfly meadow on your right and a community orchard on your left.

Turn right when you leave the park onto Kingsmead Way and walk past Kingsmead Primary School. Two pollinator mosaics on the school wall continue the Hackney Buzzline mosaic trail.

Follow the road past the Westmead community garden. After short distance take a right between Edgar and Egbert House. Walk through All Mead Gardens, past the Hackney Buzzline Memory Garden, and return to Kingsmead Way. Continue until you reach Homerton Road. Cross at the lights onto Mabley Green.

Walk to the boulder in the centre of the park around rewilded hills, grass meadow areas, and community growing strips. Continue on past the all-weather pitches. Pass under the A12 flyover and cross the Lee Conservancy Road and Eastway Road at the lights. Turn left and take an immediate right after the bridge.

Gather at the strip of Here East eateries. Toilet facilities are available.

Hackney Buzzline mosaics at Kingsmead School .jpg

(Alternative route from Here East to Cody Dock via public transport: Walk to Hackney Wick station. Take the overground to Stratford rail station, take the DLR from Stratford rail station to Star Lane and walk to Cody Dock. Journey time: 35-40 minutes)

**Hackney Buzzline**

The Hackney Buzzline is a three-year project to create a 4km pollinator corridor linking four parks through three housing estates west of the Lea. The project is run by environmental charity ecoACTIVE to support Hackney Council’s local nature recovery plan.
An ecologist and postcode gardener are creating a chain of pollinator stops every 100-200 metres alongside walking and cycling routes. They work closely with the local authority, park user and resident groups, pollinator experts, and national pollinator conservation charities.
Since 2023, more than 500 volunteers of all ages have taken action to help pollinators in their neighbourhood. They turn species-poor areas of mown grass into biodiverse wildflower meadows. They plant pollinator-friendly flower beds, planters and parklets in schools, youth hubs and community gardens and around other community hubs. Many residents are now planting for pollinators in their own gardens.
The four Hackney Buzzline parks – Mabley Green, Daubeney Fields, Millfields, and Hackney Downs – are local sites of importance for nature conservation. By creating a green corridor of pollinator habitats, the project is helping bees, butterflies and other insects move more freely through built-up areas, improving ecological connectivity between the parks.

Stage 6: Here East to the Orbit (40 mins)

Retrace your steps and turn right along the road between the north side of Here East and a multi-story car park. Walk past the entrance to the Dock Office on your right. Cross Waterden Road at the lights and follow the sign to Lee Valley VeloPark across Arena Fields. Turn left when you reach the cycle circuit and follow the path around the cycle circuit down to the river. Turn right and follow the towpath until you see a ground-level ‘Stepped Route’ sign. Take a right and follow the path up to Middlesex Way. Turn left at the top and walk towards the West Ham football stadium, crossing Waterden Road at the lights. When you reach the signs to Stratford and other destinations, veer left and walk along the 2012 Walk towards the red Arcelo Mittal Orbit sculpture. Gather under the Orbit.

There are cafes, food stands and toilet facilities in the area.

(Alternative route from the Orbit to Cody Dock via public transport: Walk to Stratford rail station, take the DLR to Star Lane, walk to Cody Dock. Journey time: 35-40 minutes)

**QUEEN ELIZABETH OLYMPIC PARK**

The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park was reclaimed from industrial wasteland for the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games. The canalised Lea was returned to the fluvial river after centuries of intensive use. 6.5 kilometres of banks and channels were reprofiled and two million tonnes of polluted soil cleaned.
The North Park provides a varied and biodiverse semi-natural terrain with the restored river at its heart. The South Park offers gardens with plants from around the world. Along the Lea navigation, the Canal Park has a patchwork of scrub and ruderal planting, swales, and meadow grass.
More than 50 hectares of wildlife habitat have been established: rivers, ponds and reedbeds; wet and dry woodland; species-rich grassland; trees; scrub; brownfield; and allotments.
Volunteers help the park authority keep the habitat mosaic in good condition. They sow meadows, repair damaged log piles, check bird and bat boxes, and remove invasive plants from the wetlands. Hedgerows are left uncut during spring and summer for nesting birds; meadow cuts are varied to create structure for insects, reptiles and mammals.
Conservation focuses on Red List birds like black redstarts, fieldfares, and swifts and other priority species including bats, otters, eels, water voles, amphibians and invertebrates.

Stage 7: The Orbit to Three Mills Island (25 mins)

Walk across the concourse towards City Mill River on your right, heading towards Sugar House in the distance. Follow the towpath under the bridge and proceed up a wide path, with hoardings on your left, to the Greenway.

Turn right at the busy Stratford High Street and cross the road at the lights. Turn right, cross Abbey Lane and turn left at the House Mill sign to rejoin the towpath.

Walk along the towpath until you see a wooden bridge. Follow the sign to Three Mills Island and proceed along the path between Three Mills Green and the river. Turn right when you leave Three Mills Green and walk along the cobbled street past Clock Mill until you rejoin the towpath. Gather at the Water Bus sign.

**THREE MILLS ISLAND**

Three Mills Island houses the world’s largest surviving tidal mill, dating back to the 18th Century.
A lock and weir were built at Three Mills to reduce tidal flows upstream and stabilise local river levels before the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games. This is likely to have come at an ecological cost: intertidal mudflats and banks, which provided feeding grounds for specialist wading birds like sandpipers, were lost. The calmer waters on the Lea may now favour more generalist species like dragonflies and moorhens but with the loss of overall ecological richness. And critically endangered migrating elvers (juvenile eels) which rely on tidal rhythms to navigate, face new challenges. An eel pass was installed next to the weir by the Zoological Society of London to help them get round the new river barriers.
Following the Olympic and Paralympic Games, 3 Mills Studios and the London Legacy Development Corporation carried out ecological improvements on Three Mills Green. The project aimed to boost local wildlife by planting wildflowers and creating new habitats, including a ‘Buggingham Palace’ for insects. A ‘Wild Kingdom natural playspace also opened, built using sustainable materials to encourage children to connect with nature while supporting biodiversity.

Stage 8: Three Mills Island to Cody Dock (20 mins)

Continue along the towpath until you reach a road bridge at the Limehouse Cut. Following the ‘Leaway South’ sign at your feet, take the left-hand path up onto the bridge and turn right at the top. Cross the bridge and take the steps down to rejoin the towpath on the other side or follow the path around for step-free access.

Continue along the towpath until you see a colourful bridge over the river. Turn left at the sign into Cody Dock. Congratulations, you’ve made it!